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Ganesh, Kirthana

University of British Columbia

Despite empirical consensus on the efficacy of psychotherapy and the importance of the therapeutic alliance on outcomes, research about the constructs of ‘therapeutic alliance’ and ‘change’ in psychotherapy are fragmented, with nebulous descriptions. The present study sought to use Reflexively Autocatalytic Foodset-Generated Networks (RAFs); a mathematical framework for modelling emergent network growth that enables us to formally describe how new ideas and perspectives can emerge from existing elements of a cognitive network. Four graduate student clinicians were interviewed about their experiences with practicing psychotherapy, and the results were qualitatively analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. The definition of psychotherapy, the therapeutic alliance and its measurement, preparation for sessions, and ‘change’ in psychotherapy emerged as four major themes. The formation of the therapeutic alliance, creation of case conceptualisation, and specific examples of change were mathematically described and illustrated using the RAF formalism. The dissertation explores implications of the findings in expanding our knowledge about the cognitive underpinnings of the psychotherapy process, as well as the teaching, and training of psychotherapy.

Text

2024-09-09

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89205

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/